My Desert Island Discs

Although they might not like to admit it, I'm willing to bet almost everyone who listens to the programme will have at least a rough idea of what they'd chose if they were ever invited onto Desert Island Discs (still going strong after 72 years on air and nearly 2500 episodes). I know it’s an absurd vanity to even momentarily entertain the idea that I am of sufficient public interest to be asked onto the programme, but that doesn't stop me preparing my list.

The rules
Here's a little context for those unfamiliar with the programme. The rules of being cast away on the imaginary island might seem a little anachronistic in this digital age but they boil down to these: you’re allowed 8 discs (tracks, in the modern vernacular) and the means to play them, presumably mechanical as there is no source of power for electrical devices. Concessions are that you can take with you a holy or philosophical text, the complete works of Shakespeare and one other book, plus one luxury item, provided that it doesn’t aid your escape from the island. Oh yes, you also get to chose the one disc you'd save if the whole lot were going up in flames or being eaten by unfriendly natives or at risk of being swept away in a tsunami.

My choices

Although there are no criteria given for the selection of the music, a convention has developed whereby it reflects milestones and/or people of significance to the castaway. And who am I to go against this convention? It's been fun, interesting, surprising, and quite nostalgic, ranging over the years (oh, so many years!), compiling the following tuneful timeline:

1. Lynn Onn (The Ash Grove) - Cor Meibion Treorci Choir (Treorchy Male Voice Choir).

I've always had a soft spot for this folksong. It is the earliest song I can remember learning (in Mrs Jones' class in Bedwas Junior Mixed Primary School) and I learnt it in Welsh, not English. Unfortunately my Welsh has been long forgotten but singing along to this under the palm trees will bring it all back - or at least the phrases that feature in the lyrics.

2. Myfanwy  - Morriston Orpheus Choir.

Mrs P entered my life when I was a callow (and probably shallow) youth of 17 and this is a favourite of hers, and that's good enough to get it on my playlist. Notwithstanding that connection, it's one I'll always associate with the Cardiff Arms Park and Rugby International Days. Happy, hazy days!

3. All right now - Free.
1970 was a great year. We were newly married and living in a very modest one-bedroomed rented flat in Southampton. In the June/July we went on a Departmental 'disco cruise' to the Isle of Wight and back and Free's All Right Now was the song that accompanied us there and back, as if on a loop. It was all right then and has been better than all right ever since. It still withstands repeat listening and would give me the right soundtrack over which to hone my air guitar skills.

4. On the turning away - Pink Floyd.
For several years before our children fled the nest, we would spend our Summer holidays on the highways and byways of Europe, driving from one Eurocamp site to the next. This track from Pink Floyd is redolent of memories of these times and, you've guessed it, another air guitar opportunity. I can just see myself looking into the setting sun and doing some serious work with the tremolo arm.

5. Spem in Allium - Thomas Tallis.
Every year we spend a week in St David's in Pembrokeshire and there was a time when we fitted in another week earlier in the year to take in the Music Festival in the Cathedral. One time at the Festival we were privileged to listen to a performance of Tallis's Spem in Allium as he intended it - 40 part harmony sang by the choirs surrounding the audience in a U-shape. Unforgettable and the task on a desert island would be to decipher and learn each of the 40 parts.

6. Kipper the Dog 
Underneath this gruff exterior is a grandfather who is inordinately fond of his ever-increasing brood of grandchildren. A desert island would be their natural environment and it would be great to have merry helpers to fetch water, haul wood, light fires, cook my food and wash my smalls. But such luxuries are banned so, as a very poor substitute) I'll take along the piece of music that they have all enjoyed at one time or another. The theme from Kipper is so relaxing that it would be ideal mood music for swinging in a hammock underneath the stars. It was either Kipper or The Wiggles (Quack Quack Cock-A-Doodle Do) but I thought I'd end up hanging myself if I listened to too much of the latter.

7. Spiegel im Spiegel - Arvo Part.
It means 'Mirrors in Mirrors' and is a supremely meditative piece. I find the smooth melodic line of the violin elevating and it takes me far out beyond the here and now. To be played when the isolation of the situation starts getting me down?  It's another favourite of Mrs P so that's another good reason to take it along.

8. Zadok the Priest - Handel's Coronation Anthem No. 1.
I've sung this anthem a few times with various choirs and it's never failed to send shivers down my spine. I particularly like the God save the King part and the intrigue of the intro. It's always struck me that Handel decided to be boring for a page or so of the score and then thinks "Argh, I've forgotten that they need to crown the king now" and, from there, he really gets going. It's something for me to sing along to full voiced as I wash my smalls in a tropical stream.

The book
I'd have the Bible (only the King James version would do, thank you very much, as I want it in proper English) and the complete works of Shakespeare but what about my own choice of reading material? Lots of candidates for this but I have settled on a brilliant little book that will keep me occupied and mentally stimulated until I am rescued from the island: The Chicken from Minsk and 99 Other Infuriatingly Challenging Brainteasers from the Great Russian Tradition of Maths and Science. I was recommended this book several years ago and finally bought one, second-hand, recently for a couple of pounds. You can get a flavour of its contents from the back cover. quoted below. This is a relatively trivial problem but some of the others are really taxing: even the solutions are hard to understand. Great fun, though, and working through them (or not) will really help while away the solitary hours.

Besides chess playing and problem solving, drinking is and always has been the most common form of recreation in Russia. Vassily has acquired a 12 litre bucket of vodka and wishes to share it with Pyotr. However, all Pyotr has is an empty 8 litre vodka bottle and an empty 5 litre vodka bottle. How can the vodka be divided evenly? 

The Luxury item 

I did consider taking my piano so that I could continue my hitherto futile  attempts at learning to play but realised that it would probably go out of tune quite quickly in the tropical humidity. A longer-lasting luxury, depending on how much I was permitted to have, would be writing and sketching materials. Writing is one thing I never get tired of and I can see myself sitting on a rock scribbling away at my diary, blog, doggerel and, perhaps, the book that every one has inside them. And sketching? It's something I've always intended to take up and who could get bored looking closely at the flora and fauna?

The One Disc I’d Save

A difficult choice but I'd have to go with the Thomas Tallis. Deconstructing the polyphony would keep me engaged for ages and, let's face it, it's just a beautiful piece of music, redolent with so many memories and connections.